Social Question

Why does Rep. Broun want to be on the science committee?

He obviously is pretty negative about many well accepted scientific theories. When I first started reading this article I was kind of blasé that he does not believe in evolution, but then it goes on to say he believes the earth is only 9,000 years old? Do people who believe that not accept carbon dating?

This question is not to bash people who don’t believe in evolution or any religious beliefs for that matter. Please refrain from attacking people’s beliefs. I am just curious why someone who rejects science so much would want to participate on a science committee?

Do you think he should be allowed on the committee? How does that work? Can Congressmen be blocked from certain committees? I admit to having no idea how committees are formed and if the constitution or our laws have specifications for it.

15 Answers

There is a large contingent of the Republican Party (who make committee decisions) that are trying to defund anything that is against their religious beliefs in Creationism and anything to do with preventing pregnancies or research with stem cells. By being on the Committee, they can block any efforts to pay for research through the National Science Foundation or the National Institutes for Health.

@bkcunningham (From wiki) The Committee on Science, Space and Technology is a committee of the United States House of Representatives. It has jurisdiction over non-defense federal scientific research and development. Specifically, the committee has partial or complete jurisdiction over the following federal agencies: NASA, the Department of Energy, EPA, ATSDR, NSF, FAA, NOAA, National Institute of Standards and Technology, FEMA, the U.S. Fire Administration, and United States Geological Survey.

Essentially it provides funding and organization to our nations scientific research efforts. Someone on the committee with an agenda to discredit, disregard, or ignore accepted scientific facts…. could be very problematic in that organization. It would be like having a principle or school board who doesn’t believe in multiplication tables.

As to this man, Broun, he is an idiot. If you disbelieve evolution, point blank you are a moron. Maybe he should spend his time trying to get everyone ever convicted with DNA evidence out of prison, since without evolution that evidence has no merit to stand on.

“I am just curious why someone who rejects science so much would want to participate on a science committee?”
The answer to that is so clear, that I am shocked it has to stated here:
He wants to be on the committee so he can sabotage the scientific progress of the country and replace evidentially demonstrated truth with the lies taught by his religion.

Well, @ragingloli pretty much beat me to it. If the position is about funding, he probably wants to use that position to prevent money from going to any research related to evolution or climate change. I mean, if he thinks these kinds of science are evil, he would be obligated to try to block them, no?

Since he actually has a degree in chemistry, perhaps he sincerely believes himself to be more suitable for the committee than the usual plethora of politicians with legal backgrounds.

I don’t know what this says about the value or validity of higher education. Maybe in some cases it facilitates an illusion of intellectual superiority and competence. One possibility is that the higher education institute he qualified through did not properly vet his competence and understanding of chemistry, and it was other less relevant traits which got him by.

Maybe he’s just a liar pandering to an ignorant base of voters. I personally can’t fathom how someone with a degree in chemistry, who should be intimately aware of radioactive decay and how it is used to accurately measure the age of rocks, could possibly think the Earth is 9,000 years old.

”I personally can’t fathom how someone with a degree in chemistry, who should be intimately aware of radioactive decay and how it is used to accurately measure the age of rocks, could possibly think the Earth is 9,000 years old.”
There are people that are perfectly capable of doing their degree and write down everything they need to pass, while still not believing anything of what they “learned” and wrote down to get the degree.

He not only has a degree in Chemistry, he also is an MD, and practiced for many years as General Practitioner.

Fundamentalist Evangelicals though, balance their understanding of Physics and Chemistry with their view of their faith. In that, fossils and the physical evidence of the history of the planet and the universe were set in place at the time of the Creation. And reconciliation of the physical world to the belief system is meant as a Test of Faith.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir That’s a very contentious debate between Creationists. I think they should teach both the 6,000 and the 9,000 years theory in classrooms and let the children decide. Teach the controversy.